Ares/The Merciless Metal
The Merciless is essentially an Ares card - although he is actually an evil version of Batman from the Dark Multiverse - introduced in the 3.0 update. He is one of the first Metal characters along with The Batman Who Laughs. He cannot be unlocked and can only be obtained through the Nth Metal Pack, the Nth Metal Pro Pack, and the Nth Metal Ultimate Pack which can only be bought by using the new currency, Nth Metal, obtained from the new game mode, Phantom Zone and from Online Battles as of update 3.1. He also has a very small chance of being given as a reward upon completion of the Phantom Zone event, however, this will still not unlock him for direct promotions. Additionally, as a Metal character, it takes 25 total copies for him to get to EVII. As such, eliting him would take a long time or a large amount of real money. Despite his base stats being double that of the best gold cards, that difference becomes less significant once he gains elite levels. Strategy Basic Attacks The combo-ender is The Merciless performing a knee kick, then an uppercut - wherein a yellow trail can be seen - which knocks the opponent in the air slightly far away. Passive On every hit of his Basic Attacks, The Merciless gains a red aura, which glows brighter with every attack landed until his passive activates, which makes his next Special UNBLOCKABLE. This is denoted by the name of his passive appearing, and the red aura gaining a fiery appearance. The Master's Death Cart's 10-hit tag-in damage will also count towards it. Special Attack hits do not count towards his passive and will not use it up until it activates. His passive will gain stacks even if he is hitting an opponent taking no damage with Invulnerability. Once his passive is activated, it cannot be reset by being hit. If The Merciless is hit by an unblocked attack before his passive activates, the red aura disappears. Therefore, it would be wise to block conservatively to prevent resetting his passive. Tagging out The Merciless will reset his passive, regardless of whether he is hit or not and whether it is activated or not. This aura appears even when he is being controlled by The Joker/Unhinged Suicide Squad, and when fully charged, "Strength of War" is displayed like normal, but this does not actually grant an unblockable special attack. Similar to Killer Croc/Arkham, every time he or another teammate tags in, Armor equivalent to 5% of max Health would be added over the main health bar. If The Merciless himself used a Dark Power Special, he and his teammates gain 5% armor as well. They will gain twice as much armor if he uses a Dark Power SP2. The Merciless' armor DOES stack with Killer Croc's armor. The Merciless' armor on Killer Croc would be visually converted to Croc's own green-brown color. However, the total armor on Killer Croc is still capped at 100% of his max health. If The Merciless has the Power Shield from the Astro-Harness active, using Dark Power specials will not give him armor. When The Merciless is KO'ed, all accumulated armor on his teammates immediately disappear and they can no longer generate any armor. You can evolve him and any other Metal character by fully upgrading his special attacks and reaching Elite III. After he evolves, you can upgrade his passive, just like The Batman Who Laughs. These upgrades decrease the number of consecutive hits needed from 12 to 7, increases his armor on tag-in from 5% to 10% and increases his armor per Dark Power bar from 5% to 15%. You can also upgrade his special attacks a second time. This time, however, you will not increase the damage dealt but the DARK POWER CHARGE PER SECOND which can be maxed to 14% for SP1 and 7% for his SP2. This is also true for The Batman Who Laughs. Interactions Good With *'Aquaman/Prime:' While summoning the Atlantean Hero does not grant armor for the Hero himself, after doing so you can immediately tag in Aquaman with no cooldown to generate armor. If Aquaman has the Tantu Totem, he can do this indefinitely, generating a whole bar of armor while his opponent can do little. *'Batman/Gaslight': Gaslight Batman's passive allows for basic attacks to miss The Merciless on tag-in thanks to the swarm of bats. This can then allow The Merciless to continue hitting the enemy without his passive having to reset from being hit. *'Hawkgirl/Prime:' Faster tagging allows for more armor generation. *'Astro-Harness:' It can give The Merciless an unblockable special since it would give invulnerability at the start of the match - which can allow him to give a few more hits on the enemy to get an unblockable special. *'The Flash/Regime:' Despite being a silver character, he allows The Merciless to attack faster. By using his knock-back light combo 4-3 times and by attacking earlier than the enemy, it guarantees an unblockable special. Good Against *'Killer Frost/Regime:' Armor gain is not considered a heal and is therefore unaffected by her passive. Countered By *'Superman/Blackest Night:' Even if he builds up his Unblockable special, Superman's immunity to unblockable attacks will negate them anyway. *'Any characters or gear that can do unblockable damage to reset his passive:' **'Batman/Blackest Night': He has a 10% unblockable chance on all attacks which increases up to 30% with other Blackest Night teammates. **'Soultaker Sword', Massive Sharpened Teeth and Custom Rifle: They grant 30%, 20% and 11% unblockable chance on basic attacks respectively. **'Ares/Prime', Killer Frost/Prime and Superman/Godfall: They have unblockable SP2s. *'Superman/Injustice 2, Batman/Dawn of Justice, The Flash/Reverse Flash , Wally West/Rebirth, Riddler's Staff, Mother Box, and Astro-Harness': They can evade all damage done by his unblockable specials. Abilities Here are Ares' abilities. Support Cards and Gear Stats Note that Metal characters cannot undergo Breakthrough. Trivia *He is the only character in the new batch of characters from 2.18 onwards to have a multi-KO SP2. *It appears his tag in sound effect (a metallic noise presumably to represent the armor he gains upon tag in) is not considered part of the SFX sound effect, or any other category either. It can be heard even if all Injustice mobile sounds are turned off as long as your phone's volume is still on, similar to the "gunfire" sound effect upon the cards of a new enemy team appearing in Online Battle. *There is currently a bug with his second Special Attack. It deals very miniscule damage as stated. Category:Cards Category:Characters Category:Metal characters Category:Phantom Zone rewards/Metal characters Category:Dark Multiverse characters Category:Characters based on other media Category:Mobile-exclusive characters Category:Tag effect Category:Unblockable Specials Category:Multi-hit combo ender Category:2-hit combo ender